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Friday, December 4, 2015

The Present State of Things

Nevertheless the age was essentially constructive. The theoretical scepticism of the Academy, the bold unbelief of Julius Caesar, and the practical atheism of Nero, had given place to a revival of belief in the Unseen. This often took the form of superstition, which is the Nemesis of outraged faith. Magic was widely practised[sic] by its pretenders and widely believed in by its dupes. People regulated their lives by omens. While the venerable oracles of Delphi and other ancient shrines were comparatively neglected, augury from the flight of birds or the inspection of entrails was more widely prevalent than ever. Nor was this all...

The heart of mankind "abhors a vacuum." If it has not spirituality [That is, the Holy Spirit--CP] it will welcome sorcery, accepting demonology in place of theology, and giving the conjurer the seat from which the prophet has been ejected...

Men were making frantic efforts to save themselves from drowning in a black ocean of spiritual corruption by catching at the floating wreckage of derelict cults.

This comes from Walter Adeney describing the state of the Roman Empire in the first-century. It doesn't take much of a stretch to see how this applies to our present state and age. Replace Julius Caesar with a host of modern politicians not nearly as dashing and cunning as Dictator Perpetua. Replace Delphi with national shrines like Mt. Vernon or Monticello. Replace augury, entrails-reading and omen-watching with horoscopes, opinion-polls, and popular-statistics.

And as for derelict cults people use to save themselves from? Of course we have old-timers like Voodoo and Freemasonry, but now the pervasiveness of Wicca, Goddess worship, and Age-of-Aquarius/Aliens New Age cults. There are also the many more secular-cults like CrossFit or some of the new dieting trends, which call Humanity to save itself by transformation.

For as much as people thing this is the Modern world, we seem to go in bizarre cycles. This is the same world that Christ entered to save. This is the same world that is beheld to the "god of this age".